LITTLE HOPE FOR JAILED ADDICTS

Any drug addict unfortunate enough to end up in Mountjoy Prison has little
chance of coming out drug free. The detox programme in place in the prison
is grossly inadequate and based on no proven international recommendations,
according to a prison doctor.

In a review of the detox programme for the director of the Prisons Service,
Dr Des Crowley, the prison's medical officer, is highly critical of the
Department of Justice.

By last February only 187 prisoners had completed the "grossly inadequate"
detox programme in Mountjoy, which was set up in July 1996, he pointed out.
Yet according to reports this week there are up to 800 prisoners in
Mountjoy, the largest prison in the State, on any given night. Two-thirds
of them have a drug problem.

Dr Crowley believes the problem is not being "prioritised to any great
extent" by the Department, and in his hard-hitting report, which has been
seen by The Irish Times, he lists a number of problems with the regime and
says one in particular could lead to the Department being sued.

This is the discontinuation of an addict's methadone treatment when a
patient enters the prison. The result is many of those who are drug-free in
the community end up back on heroin in jail.

"The provision of methadone maintenance is endorsed by the Department of
Health and the Eastern Health Board and a huge amount of resources are
dedicated each year to the provision of these services in the community,
yet the Department of Justice does not see fit to continue people
maintained on methadone in the community when they enter the prison
system," his report says.

"I feel the Department of Justice are leaving themselves wide open for
serial litigation if the consequences of discontinuing recognised treatment
while under their care is the contraction of blood-borne viruses or other
health problems associated with unsafe use of injecting materials," he adds.

The prison's medical officer also points out that the average age of those
who entered the detox programme was 26.3 years, and at this stage they had
an average of 16 convictions.

Half of them had no history of work. "Since most of these convictions are
for drug related crimes it is quite astonishing that it is only on their
present conviction that this group of prisoners have been offered a
significant chance at rehabilitation concerning their opiate addiction," he
says. "This is a terrible indictment of our policy-makers," he adds.